Every week, the NFL presents a “game of the week” and whether the honorable distinction lives up to its billing is a coin flip. Saints vs. Patriots just happened to be well-worth the price of admission. Prior to kickoff, the running sentiment was New Orleans would eventually waltz away with the game due to an obvious advantage on offense.

There’s some great think-piece out there detailing the run of momentums in this game. Unfortunately, this isn’t it. A 34-yard Kenny Stills touchdown grab with just under three and a half minutes left and Garrett Hartley field goal a minute later saw New Orleans up 27-23. The same fans who left Game 6 of the 2013 Finals before the final buzzer must be Patriots fans too because many began to exit the stadium at this point.

And for a minute, it seemed as if getting a jump on the traffic was a good idea. Between the Saints having no interest whatsoever in running out the clock, the Patriots received three possessions in the game’s final moments. The last of which Tom Brady led New England down the field – after throwing what looked like a “f*ck this sh*t” interception only minutes earlier – tossing the game winning touchdown to Kenbrell Thompkins with five seconds remaining.

Love the guy, or hate the guy, but nothing good ever comes from baiting an all-time great QB to beat you at the end of a game with multiple opportunities to do so. The Saints fell to 5-1, still atop the NFC South by a comfortable margin. Meanwhile, the Pats improved to 5-1 as Foxboro (impatiently) awaits the return of Rob Gronkowski.

Elsewhere, in the two billion dollar house of horrors known as Jerry World, best buddies Washington and Dallas squared off on Sunday night. As a person who sat in FedEx Field for the Week 17 tragedy last season, a Week 6 this year victory doesn’t erase that pain. Watching Skins fans eat humble pie, however, will always be entertaining whether it’s the last week of the season or first.

Robert Griffin III returned to Dallas, the same place where he made Thanksgiving one of the wackest days of 2012 for me, but the outcome was anything unlike his first visit. He did appear more comfortable and willing to exercise his dual threat skills. The Skins never appeared comfortable on offense all night though.

Dallas dominated on special teams thanks to monster kick and punt returns from Dwayne Harris and Brandon Carr, Jason Hatcher and Sean Lee all deserved game balls for a defensive performance that was as physical as it was dominating. Rookie wideout Terrance Williams – former teammate of RG3 at Baylor – had his growing pains early in the season, but over the past two weeks, he’s starting to install confidence in Cowboys fans for his big play potential and compliment to Dez Bryant.

Dallas will use this 31-16 victory as a springboard into a highly critical battle for NFC East midseason supremacy next week in Philadelphia. The victory being the most important note, but Dallas was bit by the injury bug. Questions all week will loom in regards to Demarcus Ware and DeMarco Murray’s availability.

Quick Hits

— Cam Newton almost truck sticked this reporter. Then he saved her life. Cam Newton, man of the people.

— The Cincinnati Bengals are known for a few things, blowing big leads being one of them. And they tried their damnedest to do just that against the Bills. But after letting a solid two touchdown lead evaporate in the fourth quarter, they got their heads together and finished off Buffalo with an overtime field goal. Don’t look now, but sitting at 4-2, atop the AFC North, these guys just may be making some real noise come playoff time. Maybe.

— There was a lot of money lost in Vegas, as Denver failed to cover the pre-game 27-point spread against Jacksonville, the largest ever in the history of the NFL. But no matter, a W is a W, and the Broncos continue to along the path to dethrone the 2007 Patriots.

— Knowshon Moreno had a career fantasy night, with 42 yards and three touchdowns. As the NFL Network so aptly put it, “LeSean McCoy could not be reached to comment.”

— Though San Francisco pulled out a win against Arizona, something still feels uneasy about the offense. Yes, Vernon Davis had perhaps his best game of his career, but Colin Kaepernick managed to struggle for most of the game. The read option remains dead and his passes have largely looked less than stellar. Hopefully, things start to click once Michael Crabtree returns to the lineup.

— The jig is up in Houston. Their pick-six streak continues, even though it came from the hands of TJ Yates, as Matt Schaub left the field, injured and surrounded by cheers from the crowd – a chump move if there ever was one. Rule #5 in the “Fan Handbook” says you never cheer or wish for a player to get injured under any circumstances.

— Cleveland looked alive in the second quarter. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the memo to show up for the other three. Detroit’s Joseph Fauria only caught three balls from Matt Stafford, but they were all for touchdowns. Shouts out to all four of the fantasy owners across the country who played him yesterday.

— For a good portion of Sunday afternoon, Aaron Rodgers looked ready to try win the game by throwing the ball to himself. Such was the predicament of the Packers, playing basically without any wide receivers after Randall Cobb and James Jones went down with injuries. Fortunately for Rodgers, in the fourth quarter, Jordy Nelson decided it was time to wake up and put the defending champs on ice.

— Anytime the Niners ask “Who got it better than us?” Alex Smith should silently raise his hand. His Chiefs remain undefeated, and continue to make the impending November 17 date with Denver more and more interesting.

— Nick Foles threw for three TDs and added one more on the ground. One thing is clear: Philadelphia is capable of wining without Michael Vick. Speaking of Vick, he doesn’t sound too worried in the least bit about regaining his starting job.

— On the heels of his personal tragedy, Adrian Peterson and his Vikings got absolutely crushed by Carolina. Sometimes, playing off of emotional intensity just isn’t enough. The pieces aren’t there in Minnesota and AP will never be able to win games entirely by himself. The only thing to look forward to is seeing whether or not Josh Freeman will be able to provide some real support.

Honestly the hit Tompkins took (where they threw a flag) LOOKED a lot worse. I think Amendola is just soft, he got hit in the shoulder and suffered instant death. Granted I’ve never been hit in my life so fuck do I know.

1. Totally off subject for a moment… but I cannot be the only one who is becoming “enh” about The Walking Dead.
2. You are right about Kap – dude’s accuracy just is not good this season. It has nothing to do with receivers missing in my opinion – you are a QB – you are either accurate or you are not. Last year, the switch gave them the best chance at a ring. But this year, man, are his throws all over the place. If it keeps up, even having those wide receivers returning is not going to matter. They should be blowing teams out. Getting into the red zone and kicking field goals is going to come back to bite them by way of losses.
3. I cannot stand cameras always cutting to Jerry Jones. It is really beginning to irk me. His family is forever in the shot with their smug look. You never see other owners shown – the stations need to stop it. They also need to stop cutting to his wife every time he makes a play. Again, you do not see that beyond the Manning family when their two sons play against each other. Plus, how many more home games do they get this season? Goodness gracious.
4. RGIII? I said it before – he would be good after 4 games. He is looking good. The defense and special teams playing poorly is something he cannot control. Plus, that run game (from Morris) of last year is simply not there.
5. The Raiders were in it – until Pryor threw that pass off his back foot when they were pinned inside the 20. I instantly knew (as soon as he threw it) that it was going to turn into an interception. You never throw a ball like that. It continued from there into a downward spiral. But now… teams will know how to scheme against them from the tape.

The games were far less exciting than last week (in my market at least – I am watching highlights as I type this and I wish I had the Saints vs. Pats game)… but I already won my fantasy match-up with 3 players left to play tonight (while my opponent has none).

That Matt Shaub whole ordeal was fucked up, as dude really wanted to get back out there and play. But at the same time, everyone including him knows that he’s the weakest link so it’s expected that people be hard on him although not that hard. I think we would be good after our bye week, and I might be a little optimistic but we’re still going to the playoffs.

I changed the channel after Brady threw that last INT so I switch to Gameday for highlights, checking the ticker, Pats won? I let out a Scooby Doo confused grunt. Saw the highlights, and said shit. Do the Saints not employ regular sized running backs? Oh and the best thing that came from that game, this gif!

Didn’t see any of the games except part of SNF cause I was out most of the day celebrating my youngest nephews 4th birthday with most of my immediate fam, but from the highlights I seen it didn’t look like there was to many exciting games as there was last week or most of the season as TRA said! Man AP & my Vikings have been a huge disappointment this year too! I thought they would at least be in the playoff hunt again if not at least make the playoffs again, but it’s looking more unlikely by the week! Hard to believe that I have a FF team with Peyton & AP that’s about to be 3-3 too! Going back to Minny the crazy thing is they could’ve won at least 2 if not 3 of those games, but blew leads or just didn’t show up for all 60 minutes! Which is what makes it so frustrating as a fan!

There was a lot of money lost in Vegas, as Denver failed to cover the pre-game 27-point spread against Jacksonville, the largest ever in the history of the NFL. But no matter, a W is a W, and the Broncos continue to along the path to dethrone the 2007 Patriots.

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You had to take the points on that one though, its like a 50/50 chance. And more importantly familiarity with a QB helps out the defense.

Redskins defense is horrid this season. Romo and company was on the field way too long and that pass rush was lookiong weak. Orapko’s in his contract season too. RG3 is playing a lot better tho. His statline last night was good as hell, but you can still tell he’s a bit shook to run. There were a lot of plays last night that pre-injured RG3 would’ve scrambled for. That O-line was just getting washed left and right and the defense wasn’t doing anything to scare Romo. Morris was showing flashes of his former self with some of those runs tho. Good moral victory for the skins, but the defense got a lot to talk about this week.

I was at Texans game…. This cheering Schaub injury is blown waaaaay out of proportion, some jackass’s were cheering, but a majority were simply clapping that he was able to walk of field ; this happens all the time, player goes down, then when you see its not serious you clap…